Global vs Local Variables

[JonAgnew]

Hey, guys. Just a quick question for clarification. I have a script that involves a lot of IF statements. I want to make a sub-script that I can call via Perform Script, so I don't have to have a 1000 line script. If I set variables in the main script that I want to use in the sub-script, do I need to set those to global variables?

[dansmith65]

If you were to use variables, yes.

An alternative would be to pass the values to the sub-script in the script parameter, but if you want to pass multiple values, then you will need a method to manage that. There are plenty of options for this, my preferred method is: http://sixfriedrice.com/wp/filemaker-dictionary-functions/

[Fitch]

It's OK to use global variables, but... If you do, keep in mind that they are file-specific, so it won't work if the sub-script is in a separate file. Another potential drawback is that you have to clean up after yourself, as a persistent value in a global variable could have unintended consequences.

For those reasons, I generally prefer to pass script parameters as Dan suggested. I use this method, which is a little simpler than the 6FR way, which requires a function both to send and receive the params. The one I use only uses a function to receive the params.